Sometimes shows go too soon, sometimes too late, sometimes who cares, and sometimes just right. As this TV season ends (you all know summer doesn’t count, right?), we said goodbye to Titus, X-Files, Spin City/Dharma and Greg, and Ally McBeal.
Titus is leaving way too soon. Darkly humorous, unafraid to go past conventional limits, and deathly funny, Christopher Titus’s look at the people in his real life was cancelled after only two seasons. “That which does not kill us, makes us funny.” That quote, from Christopher Titus’ Philosophies of Life, is an excellent summary of why the show is so funny. This guy is good, really good, and so this cancellation will be just a bump in the road; we’ll see more of him very soon.
The X-Files finale was, I thought, satisfying and imaginative but should have aired two years ago. Carter, Manners, and the rest of the X creative crew made nice use of dead or long gone characters, got Duchovny back to give the focus to Mulder and Scully as it should be, and summed up the alien conspiracies for longtime viewers. Mitch Pileggi, the always underused AD Skinner, played a major role. William B. Davis gives us a wild, long-haired surprise as the Cigarette Smoking Man and finally unveils his reason for protecting Mulder all these years: he wanted to see the look on Mulder’s face when he finally learned the truth and the truth did not set him free but broke him. Ah but the truth didn’t break him, it bonded Mulder and Scully closer than ever, and set us up for the next big screen adventure coming in 2004. But the last two seasons were just, well, superfluous. Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish, both okay actors, didn’t have the chemistry, the just right match for the materials that Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have.
Some viewers might put Spin City in the too late category because the show should have quit gracefully when Michael J. Fox had to leave due to illness two years ago. I would disagree though because Charlie Sheen and the producers were able to reinvent the deputy mayor character rather than just try and slip Sheen in as repackaged Fox. This worked for all of, say, half a season. Maybe it was ratings or network pressure, maybe it was writer laziness, but in any case the show just became repetitive and boring. Dharma and Greg fell into the same rut after going strong for several seasons. The show page to which I linked in the previous sentence, the network’s description for the last two episodes, is precisely reflective of this show’s rut: setting the parents off against each other once again. And again. And again. You see my point: who cares.
Ally McBeal is leaving while the leaving is good. Callista Flockhart, never to heavy to not look anorexic, has the father figure/action hero/lover she apparently always wanted in Harrison Ford. David Kelley has The Practice, Boston Public, and a new show about young, sexy female lawyers who not only work together but live together (girls club) taking Ally’s schedule slot on the Fall schedule. How many different guys can she fall in love with anyway without at least one sticking around? Let’s be glad that Kelley didn’t cheap shot Ally and Richard into a last second double wedding. The final episode was good, paid tribute to some of the best bits (Ally’s men, especially Gil Bellows’ Billy), the dancing baby, Ally’s tendency to get lost in the ether, singing at the club, and best of all, the whackiness of love.
BillSaysThis 